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Townsend hopes Typhoon Hagibis won't derail Scotland's quarter-final hopes at Rugby World Cup

Scotland head-coach Gregor Townsend is hoping the incoming 'super typhoon' doesn't wreck their ho...



Scotland head-coach Gregor Townsend is hoping the incoming 'super typhoon' doesn't wreck their hopes of making the knockout stages of the Rugby World Cup.

George Horne and Adam Hastings both scored hat-tricks as they thrashed Russia 61-0 this morning, to set-up a decider with hosts Japan in a weather-threatened game on Sunday.

World Rugby will announce tomorrow morning whether 'Super Typhoon Hagibis' will cause changes to the final round of pool fixtures - with winds of up to 180-miles per hour forecast to hit when the storm makes landfall on Saturday.

Townsend says he's 'hopeful' that weather won't force his team's match to be cancelled and that they're awaiting clarification ahead of this weekend's games.

“We’ll be getting updates from World Rugby over the next two days as to what contingencies are.

“The Ireland game is already in the history books, it was a missed opportunity where we didn’t get our best game in place.

“You move on to the next game and what the players have done since that Ireland game, I couldn’t ask any more of them.

“It’s two games now we haven’t conceded a try or even a point, which is very encouraging. if we hadn’t got the bonus point, Sunday would have been more difficult.”

The Telegraph earlier reported that England's Pool C clash with France on Saturday could be moved from Yokohama to Oita and played behind closed doors in the interest of supporter safety.

A Met Office spokesperson told the Press Association this afternoon:

"The overall story remains the same. Typhoon Hagibis in the western North Pacific is on track towards Japan this weekend.

"As of Wednesday morning, it was located around 900 miles south of Tokyo with estimated wind speeds of around 120mph and gusts of 170mph.

"Obviously as Hagibis moves towards Japan it is going to weaken and those wind speeds will fall.

"We are expecting that Hagibis is likely to make landfall on Saturday, not too far from Tokyo.

"By that stage it will have weakened significantly, but with sustained wind strengths still of around 90mph and with gusts of up to 135mph. Along with the strong winds, we are expecting very heavy rain along its path.

"Obviously with those very strong and severe winds, with heavy rain, there is likelihood of significant impact from the damaging winds and also from storm surge.

"With the winds and large waves, there is the risk of flash flooding as well in the Tokyo region."

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